


Silent Support

by anysin



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Secret Messages, Sort of at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 09:33:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11288517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anysin/pseuds/anysin
Summary: During his early days of working on the portal, Stan starts receiving strange messages.





	Silent Support

He discovers the first message when one of Ford’s many broken mirrors drops on the floor, shattering into even tinier pieces. 

Stan notices the smudgy lines on the glass when he leans down to sweep up the shards, and a closer look reveals that they’re actually letters; the realization makes Stan’s heart beat faster. Could this be a secret message about the portal, or maybe about the whereabouts of the journals? The rational part of his brain is already telling him no, but he starts putting the mirror together on the floor anyway, careful not to get his own fingerprints on the glass. When the message is finally formed, the rational side of him is just as disappointed as it expected it to be, but the rest of Stan is confused.

_Keep going._

The next message is much easier to see. It’s written on the snowy surface of the Stanmobile, drawn there with what looks like a child’s fingertip.

_Focus._

The first message was easy to dismiss as some old, bizarre note to Ford, but this one is harder to explain away. Stan’s first thought is kids playing a prank on him, except he can’t imagine what they could be getting out of a prank like this. An adult writing the same message, or asking a child to do it for them, makes even less sense. What, they’re telling Stan to focus on the Shack? They like having it around that much?

The other option, that people of the town somehow know about the portal, pops into his mind, but he dismisses it at that time. He can’t dismiss it when the third message comes around.

_You are doing well. Keep going._

This one is written on the mirror again, in the steam while Stan is taking the shower. Stan knows for sure nobody went in or out of the bathroom while he was in it, which leaves only one culprit for the messages: the supernatural. And what would stop a supernatural creature from knowing about his work with the portal? 

That leaves Stan with mixed feelings. Part of him wants to believe that this creature is just as kind as its messages are, but the rest of him is quick to assume the opposite. This creature may be the very reason why Ford was so scared and paranoid before ending up in the portal, why he felt he needed to hide all the information about it, why he wanted to give that journal to Stan, why he is gone now. This kind of makes him want to punch the creature.

_Your brother needs you._

Then again, he barely knows what he’s doing. He doesn’t know what he’s doing at all.

So despite his misgivings, Stan remains receptive to the messages. This creature may be the enemy, but maybe it’s also just as invested in getting the portal to work as he is. He doesn’t want it anywhere near him, but he’s willing to listen to it, just to know that he is doing something right, that he still has reasons for doing this in the first place. He needs to find the way to fix this. Of all the things he has done wrong in his life, there is nothing he needs to fix more than this one.

_Maybe it’s not always you who has done things wrong._

Feeling the message against his ear, soft and wet, rather than seeing it makes him shiver, but he can’t stop his chest and eyes from flooding with emotions over those words.

When the messages stop soon after that, he is relieved. Relieved because he doesn’t have to wonder about them anymore, because he can now focus all his attention on the portal, because this thing finally realized that what it was doing served no purpose. Stan doesn’t have to care about it anymore.

And yet.

_You’ll get there, Stanley. By crawling and bleeding if you have to, but you’ll make it._

And yet.


End file.
